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Bear unit 22, 32 opening date

Does anyone know why the Spring opening dates (April 1st) for these units are earlier than the other Spring bear units?

For one those are controlled hunt units. It might be because they don't allow bait or hounds on this hunt and they close it earlier because the hound training season opens the day after it closes. Just my guess.

Luke got it right. It's a controlled area and not a general season. Needs to go back to a general season, but probably never will as the Dept. wants that controlled hunt $$$$.

You got that right scott. After I saw 8 different bears in one draw last year elk hunting I knew that they were overpopulated. The F and G likes that 6.25 per applicant

They would sell many more regular season bear tags and probably make more $$$$ if it went back to general like it was when I was a kid. The whole deal of that area being (Beacham's Study Area) was a complete joke. He was a biologist that wanted to study the bears in that area so they made it a controlled hunt. He never did anything with it and left the IDF&G years ago, complete waste of time and money in my opinion. Then unit 24 closes in the spring season yesterday, why?. Half of 24 is still under snow when they close that season. 33 & 39 go until June 15th, but yet up higher in 24 they close it at the end of May. I don't get it and neither does a lot of people I know who hunt bears in 24.

Ya they have got a weird way of going about things

Even though the season opens early it seems like it's not hunted until the very end because of limited access on the roads. Of course this year was worse than most other years, but everyone I talked to, who had hunted it in previous years, said not to start until May because of snow on the roads. So, even though the season has an early start, it's not really huntable until later, unless you hunt off of snowmobiles.

Stillhunter you will hurt your brain trying to find any logic in a lot of the Dept. decisions.

I elk hunt unit 22 and I would bet there are more bears per mile than anywhere you will find in Idaho. Guarantee to see at least one bear every single day. Wish they would put out more tags or make it general season.

need some help in unit 22 for black bear this fall any help would be greatly appreciated

Vstunja from those other posts it looks like it should be a cake walk.

Looking for more info on this as well - looks like the Spring 2019 season in unit 22 is 4/1 - 5/22. Would you recommend waiting until May to do this hunt due to snowpack? I won't have access to snowmobiles or even a 4 wheel drive car.

Thanks

Gotta draw the tag first. You can't just hunt that area.

Probably lots of change to 22 and 31 bear seasons this year 2019, just hope they don't completely open it up, it's a really good mature bear area and great for training the hounds. General season would ruin it though they'd sell more tags which is the idea anyway. I can see increasing the number of controlled tags but not unlimited tags, be a bunch of dinks like the rest of the general units.

I've hunted 32/32A for over 35 years. It was a general unit for bear when I was younger. Then a know it all biologist for IDFG wanted his own "Bear Study Area". So they gave him 32/32A/31/22 for his "Study" and made it this ridiculous controlled hunt. A couple of years later that Biologist took a job in Maine or something like that and the "Study" was a flop. IDF&G just kept the controlled for $$$$ and nothing more. It's a bear zoo anymore. I definitely commented to IDF&G that it is well past time to open all 4 back up to OTC and stop the ridiculous controlled hunts. It's not for biological reasons and they would generate just as much $$$ from OTC. Their is training seasons all over the area. I also commented that the spring hunt should be allowed to have a bait. It never made sense to me that spring was spot/stalk only, but they allowed the hounds in the fall to run right thru archery elk hunters set-ups. I am not against hounds in anyway, but if you are allowing one extra method in the fall why not bait in the spring. A bait situation would produce the mature boars getting thinned out much more than spot/stalk. JMHO after many decades of over run bear encounters. Bring on OTC Bears in all 4 units!

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